Brandon Perkins Posts

The usual narrative goes like this: big government has to step in and flex its muscle when big corporations fail to do the right thing. This week, H&M reversed the story. Governments in Bangladesh and Cambodia aren't doing enough, according to the second largest clothing retailer in the world, so H&M is instituting its own minimum wage requirements at the factories that manufacture its goods.

A third, lesser known, billionaire Koch brother fits just fine in the family order — opposing alternative energy to preserve his lifestyle of the rich and richer. As reported by the New York Times, William I. Koch has waged a 12-year fight over a potential wind farm in Nantucket Sound, which he'd be able to view from his nearly 40 acres of land in the ritzy Massachusetts community.

Bangladesh's garment factories have been in the news as saddening examples of globalism's worst throughout 2013, but a story from one Bangladesh factory is finally yielding some feel-good news — even if it took a kidnapping. Reuters is reporting that workers at a garment factory released their boss after holding him for 18 hours in his office and their promised bonuses were finally paid.

Hours after Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role in disclosing secret government documents to WikiLeaks, his lawyer announced that Manning will seek a pardon from President Obama as early as next week.

While his press conference is still airing live across the Internet, find the statement just released by Julian Assange of WikiLeaks in response to today's military court verdict after the jump.

While Grover Norquist's Taxpayer "Protection" Pledge might be the most famous public promise signed by politicians, it's not the only pledge pitting big business' interests against that of the American people. The New Yorker this week is reporting on a pledge sponsored by the Koch Brothers' Americans for Prosperity that demands inaction by Congress on climate change regulations.

As the country awaits the Supreme Court rulings on the "constitutionality" of marriage equality, Michigan House Democrats and LGBT leaders announced yesterday a package of legislation that will repeal the state's ban on same-sex marriage.

Speaking to the North Carolina Bar Association in Asheville, N.C., on Friday morning, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia further discussed his opinions on marriage equality, the death penalty, abortions and more. It was quickly apparent that, unlike the rest of America, Scalia's thoughts on these so-called moral issues haven't changed in his 27 years on the court.

The Other 98% is generating publicity for its campaign to purchase the Tribune Company — the parent corporation of the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune and more — before the newspaper group gets purchased by Rupert Murdoch or the Koch Brothers. And now they're doing it by appealing directly to the readers of those newspapers.

In a report that sounds like the sequel to Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway's "Love and Other Drugs," researchers from Oregon State University, Oregon Health and Science University, and the University of Washington concluded that ending the relationships between physicians and pharmaceutical companies could improve health care and cut costs.

When five mega-companies control 90-percent of a $700 trillion market, it's safe to say that they can afford some pretty good lobbyists in Washington. According to a report from Mother Jones released on Friday, however, Citigroup's influence on Capitol Hill is so strong that the House financial services committee passed legislation that was practically plagiarized from a proposal drafted by the bank's lobbyists.